UPDATE:After a vote by the 14-member committee Lang Sias will representing House District 27 in the legislature.

Republican Lang Sias at the Arapahoe County Assembly in 2010. (Lynn Bartels, The Denver Post)

Either an Arvada businesswoman or a former Top Gun instructor who has tried a run before for the Legislature will be selected by a GOP vacancy committee today to fill the seat of former state Rep. Libby Szabo, who resigned after being appointed to the Jefferson County board of commissioners.

The 15-member vacancy committee for House District 27 will vote to send Christine Jensen or Lang Sias to the state House of Representatives.

Twelve people applied for Szabo’s seat, but their names are not being released. Jensen said she heard there very were some very high-caliber candidates so she was “honored” to be one of the final two selected.

Jensen manages the Arvada branch of the Cherry Creek Mortgage Co. and also serves as the chair of the Arvada Chamber of Commerce Government Affairs Committee.

After minority leadership elections, Sen. Jessie Ulibarri of Westminster, elected the new caucus chair, presented Nicholson with flowers, while Sen. Mike Johnston of Denver thanked her for her service.

“I just want to say that you have been an incredible force of wisdom and courage over the years I have gotten to serve with you,” he said. “It was amazing to come and walk with you during this campaign. In this last week when everybody was nervous and frantic and exhausted and short tempered, you were bubbly and you were thoughtful and you were courageous. That’s the way you’ve been at every step of this journey here.

“I just want to say a huge thank you for leading us.”

For the first time since 2002, Democrats lost the majority in the general election. Republicans will have an 18-17 edge for the next two years. Also losing her seat was Sen. Rachel Zenzinger of Arvada.

In a bittersweet day for Senate Democrats, Rachel Zenzinger took the oath of office Friday, promising to bring the same “collaborative spirit” she employed while serving on the Arvada City Council.

The 38-year-old single mother of two, who grew up on the Western Slope, said she looks forward to making an impact on education, economic development and transportation.

Zenzinger took the seat held by former Sen. Evie Hudak, a Westminster Democrat who resigned last month as Second Amendment activists were mounting a recall effort against her for her gun votes.

“It is obviously a day of mixed emotions,” said Senate Minority Leader Rollie Heath, D-Boulder. “Sen. Hudak said to me, ‘I love this job,’ and we all know she did. She brought forth a spirit that cannot be denied. But we need to look to the future.”

Three of four leaders at the Colorado legislature at one time went through a vacancy committee to get into office, but it’s been a while since the process generated the amount of publicity seen since the resignation of Sen. Evie Hudak and the selection of Rachel Zenzinger to take her seat.

Zenzinger will resign her Arvada City Council seat today, then be sworn into office at 11:30 a.m. in the Senate chambers.

Zenzinger joins a long list of state lawmakers who at one time went through the vacancy process, including Congressman Doug Lamborn of Colorado Springs, and former lawmaker Ron Tupa of Boulder, who has the distinction of winning a vacancy committee election by a single vote.

Nearly one-fourth of the 35 Senate members have gone that route at some point. Most vacancies occur because a lawmaker got elected to another position or decided to take a job that actually paid some real money. Some vacancy committee elections have been doozies, some sleepers, some squeakers, some landslides.

UPDATE:As of noon, about half the office was packed up, with folks continually stopping to wish Hudak well.

Former Sen. Evie Hudak cleaned out her office today, hours before a vacancy committee will meet and choose her successor.

Former Sen. Evie Hudak scrapes her name off her state-owned computer, which she turned back in today. (Lynn Bartels, The Denver Post)

At times the Westminster Democrat struggled to keep her composure as she looked around her tiny Senate office with its stunning view of Denver’s City-County Building and the mountains.

“I hope it was worth it,” she said.

Hudak, who was facing a potential recall for her support for stricter gun laws, resigned her seat last month rather than proceed with a costly election that could have given Republicans the majority. Democrats hold only an 18-17 majority after two other Democrat senators were recalled in September over their gun positions, and Hudak said she didn’t want the achievements her party made to be undone.

The gun group pushing the recall of Sen. Evie Hudak has backed down on its plan to turn in petition signatures to the secretary of state’s office Tuesday, noting state election officials said there was no point after she resigned last week.

Instead, Rocky Mountain Gun Owners now is concentrating on next November, despite Facebook comments pushing for additional recall efforts against certain Democrats for their support for gun control.

“Our focus needs to be on 2014,” Joe Neville, political director for Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, said today.

After Hudak resigned her seat last week — just days before Tuesday’s deadline to turn in signatures to try to force a special recall — Neville said the signatures would be turned in regardless. “We’re still charging toward Tuesday, and no matter what we’ll submit the petition signatures,” he said at the time.

“We told them we’re not going to count them because she’s not a sitting senator anymore,” Deputy Secretary of State Suzanne Staiert said today.

Former state Rep. Sara Gagliardi of Arvada and current Arvada City Councilwoman Rachel Zenzinger are vying for the seat.

State Rep. Tracy Kraft-Tharp, an Arvada Democrat, considered the Senate District 19 vacancy, but on Friday announced via Twitter she would remain in the House and endorsed Gagliardi. In 2010, Gagliardi lost her re-election bid to Republican Rep. Libby Szabo in House District 27.

Zenzinger announced on Friday the endorsement of Sen. Mary Hodge, D-Brighton.

A Democratic vacancy committee will select Hudak’s successor. The replacement would serve in the upcoming legislative session but would have to run for the seat in November 2014 to keep it.

Democrats hold a single-seat majority (18-17) in the Senate after former Senate President John Morse of Colorado Springs and former Sen. Angela Giron of Pueblo were ousted from office in September recall elections.

Organizers in the Hudak recall said on Wednesday they still plan to submit signatures to secretary of state’s office next week, despite Hudak’s resignation.

Lynn Bartels thinks politics is like sports but without the big salaries and protective cups. The Washington Post's "The Fix" blog has named her one of Colorado's best political reporters and tweeters.

Joey Bunch has been a reporter for 28 years, including the last 12 at The Denver Post. For various newspapers he has covered the environment, water issues, politics, civil rights, sports and the casino industry.